GRAZ, Austria, December 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --While Vienna, Austria's capital, might first spring to mind as the business centre of Austria, the engine powering the economy is the Austrian region of Styria. Styria's strengths in key development clusters, such as automotive engineering and renewable and cleantech engineering are paying dividends in terms of regional economic growth. Recognition was not long to follow.

From investing heavily in existing cleantech energy resources, such as hydropower to blazing trails in new, state-of-the-art resources, such as thermal electricity and heating, Styria, and its regional capital, Graz, are open for business and information exchange in the growing renewable energy sector, in which Styria is an undisputed leader.

The Economic Development Institute of Graz, Austria leads the renewable energy sector in Europe. To put this leadership on display, Graz hosted a one-day conference to present practical applications of satellite technology in renewable energy in September 2012 with the aim of providing renewable energy solutions for SMEs. The conference brought together renewable-energy-industry stakeholders to help give small and medium-sized enterprises a leg up in developing their businesses. The marriage of Graz's growing reputation in green energy with its locations as a technology hub makes it an ideal centre for real-world solutions in eco-technology.

The Austrian Research Promotion Agency and ICS (Internationalisierungs Center Steiermark) are leading the way with, for example, conferences that tackle various aspects of harnessing technology to create a more sustainable future.

Graz Sees the Future of Energy

"Graz, and Styria as a whole, has not only implemented renewable energy programmes and dedicated itself in both practice and planning to future-oriented, environmentally sound business, it is also a hub for learning, knowledge sharing and networking in the incredibly varied disciplines within the renewable energy sector," said Erika Wolfe from online FDI platform and information resource, Locations4business. "By always looking forward and bringing together stakeholders from across the spectrum, public, private and academic, the region has built a solid reputation in many sectors, but particularly in renewable and cleantech energy. By hosting events, such as the renewable energy conference on satellite solutions for SMEs, Graz is displaying just a small piece of what makes Austria, and the Styrian region in particular, compelling for both large-scale investors and SMEs. The whole business ecosystem is represented even in a relatively niche field, such as satellite technology for renewable energy - and this region in Austria has the clout to pull all these stakeholders together. This is the kind of fertile ground that investors and innovators dream of."